Over on SteveGarfield.tv at The Pulse Network I'm experimenting with Online Video and Social Media. Part of my exploration is into ways to make it easy for the audience to interact int eh live broadcast via a video chat.

I just heard from Brian August at Watchitoo that they are going to be working with msnbc.com to host a live video chat on election night. The chat is scheduled to take place Tues. Nov 2, between 7 and 8 pm.

Here is a mock up of what the experience will look like with instructions that explain how you can log into Watchitoo and activate your webcam.
msnbc.com election night video chat mock up

Here's more from Brian:

Once viewing the show, you will be contacted by a moderator via a chat room and you will be staged in our virtual "Green Room" until it is your turn to speak with the host. While that is happening, you will be able to watch the show. If possible, please have earbuds (or headphones) handy.

Join us to learn from the best in a free 60-minute webinar. Steve Garfield, the "Paul Revere of video blogging", and Bettina Hein, CEO of Pixability, will share with you the latest trends that online video and related media have to offer. You'll learn:

- benefits of marketing with online video
- how to shoot video like a pro (recording, editing, exporting, etc)
- how to build presence with video on the social web
- how to increase views for your video

- Create a custom URL to point to your book page. Mine is http://stevegarfield.com/getseen I started off at NING, but changed over to Facebook. You use the custom URL to redirect to wherever you want, so if people use your custom URL to point to your book site, it will always work

GET SEEN: Moo Card

- Make up custom business cards for your book. I used MOO. They make high quality cards that stand out.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Head to leading music video portal VEVO this morning and you’re going to see something that’s quite out of the ordinary: a new music video starring Andy Grammer that puts you in the director’s chair. Hit ‘play’ and things will start simply enough, with Grammer walking down an alley as he croons toward the camera. But after a few moments you’ll see a popup asking if you want him to “Bump into Movers” or get “Dumped by Bikers”. Better make up your mind — you only have ten seconds to make your choice, and it actually impacts which version of the video you’ll be seeing. It’s part video game, part choose-your-own adventure story, and it’s what you might call “engaging as hell”.

There are many choices to be made throughout the music video.

Example choice: Bump into Movers or Bumped by Bikers

As you make choices, by clicking on the video, the path of the video seamlessly branches along.

Go to the Second Floor:
Hey, it's Rainn Wilson! ;-)

When you're done you can embed your version anywhere.

Note: When I embedded the video it was missing a closing OBJECT tag. I've let them know.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Over half of the 7,203 ballots in the Oct. 19 preliminary were cast for O’Malley, who received 3827 votes—53.17 percent of the total according to unnofficial results provided by the City Elections Department. But he would have come in second if the only people who had voted for him were the 750 who showed up at his September campaign kick-off, presuming they were District 6 residents.

Teitell called me for help in identifying local Foursquare users, so I put a call out to twitter.

You Click an iPhone, Right?
Teitell also called me to make sure of the correct terminology for using Foursquare was the word 'click'.

You do click buttons on your iPhone with your finger, right?

Foursquare Explained, Sort of.
Foursquare is explained this way:

For those unsure how this whole geolocation thing works, or even unaware that its social applications exist, here’s a quickie lesson, using Foursquare as an example: A user checks in, via a smartphone click, at a favorite location — Starbucks, say, or an Indian restaurant. That sends a message to two groups: the user’s friends, wherever they are, and other users who have clicked on the location in the app and scroll through the “Who’s here’’ list (a level of sharing users can opt out of). The user’s picture, first name, and last-name initial appear on the list.

That's kinda right, although it misses the point that all the data is stored in a database, and that when you check into a place, messages aren't sent out to all your friends, only those that have chosen to receive push notifications.

My Agenda
Teitell introduces the section I'm in with this paragraph:

As businesses try to woo customers, singles check each other out, and social network-types try to make connections, there’s one group of people with no agenda other than making friends.

I don't recall the reporter asking me about my Foursquare agenda.

Obviously it's not mainly about making new friends, I use Foursquare to keep track of people that I already know. That agenda doesn't fit the premise of the article though.

Fred?
We do get a glimpse at my meeting with Fred at Jamaica Pond.

Fred at Jamaica Pond and me on the iPhone

Consider the meeting between Fred White, 48, management consultant, and Steve Garfield, author of “Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business.’’ White had been following Garfield on Twitter, and one day he was at Jamaica Pond when a guy called out: “You’re Fred White.’’ To which White answered: “You’re Steve Garfield.’’ They had recognized each other from their Foursquare pictures.

“It was kind of weird,’’ White said. “We’re practically neighbors, but here we have to meet through this forum of millions of people.’’

One more thing, I didn't say "“You’re Fred White" since Foursquare only supplies first name, last initial.

I have friends–male and female–with very diverging opinions on how to connect on location-based apps. Personally, when it comes to LBS platforms, I choose only to friend folks with whom I’ve had some form of previous connection. I’ve either met them personally or have had online interaction with them on Twitter or elsewhere. I don’t see a need to connect further with someone on a service that shares my location until we’ve had at least that much experience with each other first. And I’m thoughtful about how and when I share my location. If there’s any question of security or risk, I just don’t check in. The social experience isn’t worth putting myself or others at personal risk.

Note that she too doesn't mainly use Foursquare to meet new people, but to share her location with people that she already knows.

I left this comment on her blog:

I find it interesting that we both wrote blog posts that actually are the opposite of the article’s premise. We both use Foursquare, not to meet new people, although that has happened, but to let people in our existing network know where we are...

Our experience shows how broken news reporting is. Anyone who has ever been quoted in a news article knows how error prone it is.

One more thing, when we were both in Las Vegas this weekend, I checked into the MORE buffet at the Luxor, and Foursquare showed me that you were there with 50 other people, so I joined you for an amazing breakfast.

That place is so huge that I might not have known you were there without Foursquare.

That is why it’s valuable.

Here's a link to my book, Get Seen, if you're interested in learning about putting video online:

Update:
It was his phone I took a look at his address book entry and all I have is his phone #. If I also had his email address, I could choose which to call, his iPhone via his phone #, or his Mac via his email address.

I had a complementary pass for WiFi at the Luxor hotel which was supposed to work at the Starbucks. It didn't

Never was able to get WiFi to work at BlogWorld.

This happens all the time. It would be nice if you could go to a conference where the WiFi worked.

2. Speakers need wired internet connections
For my session on Video POdcasting 101, the speaker's laptop didn't have a hard wired connection. It shared the WiFi for the conference.

I ended up using a presentation that included embedded videos that I could play from the hard drive.

3. Show floor Should Open on Thursday

My schedule for Friday was packed: Live broadcast, Session, book signing, interview, panel.

Thursday wasn't so full, but the show floor wasn't open.

I would have loved to spend time at many of the booths including Blogger, BlogTalkRadio, CoTweet, DemandMEdia, Ford, Jenn-Air, Lijit, Plixi, radioan6, Bluberry, Sony, Telestream, my sponsor .tv, and YouTube.

4. Project Keynotes on big screen

I was excited to take part in the Mark Burnett presentation and had to sit in the last row for the planned recording of my segment. But from the back row, I could see the need for the video of Brian Solis and Mark Burnett to be broadcast live onto the big screens during the session.

Note: I didn't go to the other keynotes. Those might have been projected.

5. Sponsored dinners: What's Your Story?

I went to two very nice sponsored dinners. At one dinner, Ford got up and gave a brief multimedia presentation about their social media success and plans for the coming year. It was just right.

At the other dinner, we got to meet everyone, but didn't get any information about the company.

I'm a proponent of keeping sales pitches to a minimum, but nothing at all?

6. Reduce the Barriers to Register for Parties

For one party you had to go through a Triple Registration.

This included:
- Signing up with a username/password
- Authenticating with Twitter
- Sending in a text message to register via cellphone

Too much.

7. Unconference?
Were there UnConference areas for people to put together ad hoc presentations?

That's a good idea for people who didn't get their sessions accepted or if someone has an idea to do something on the day of the show.

Brian saw I was in Las Vegas for BlogWorld Expo and was planning something special for his Keynote with Mark Burnett.

We saw each other on the first night of BlogWorld and Brian told me that he might have something for me to do, but he couldn't say yet.

Can Steve Garfield Come to the Front of the Ballroom
Just before the Mark Burnett Keynote, my cellphone started ringing off the hook with messages that I had to go to the ballroom immediately. When I got there I heard on the loudspeaker, "Can Steve Garfield Come to the Front of the Ballroom".

I was met bay a whole group of people including Brian Solis and Mark Burnett. They asked if I'd be willing to take part in a Social Media experiment to launch Burnett's new show, Sarah Palin's Alaska."

At this point in time we were a few minutes away from the start of the session so there was little time to think. I agreed to help Brian with this experiment. Anyone who follows me knows how I feel about Sarah Palin. ;-)

The idea was that I would tweet out a link to a never before seen clip from Sarah Palin's Alaska that I would host on my YouTube account.

We set me up at the back of the ballroom with a laptop, a wireless mic, and two cameras.

I got the tweet with the link ready to send and also put it on my iPhone as backup.

Brian called out to me, and I posted the tweet. He then asked everyone to retweet it.

The TLC publicity team is certainly taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to spreading word about the show. A TLC rep handed out stickers at Thursday's Blogworld expo (where producer Mark Burnett was a keynote speaker) to attendees. The stickers read: "I can see Sarah Palin's Alaska from my living room."

Note: The metal ring doesn't adhere well to the iPhone 4 or Kodak PlayTouch glass lens.

Photojojo responds:

We have heard that if you have a case or protective film on the back of your phone, then they will stick, but that's not the best solution if you ask us! We're still looking into other ideas... like getting some rings made that are extra sticky (and don't block the iphone 4 flash).

Learn all kinds of cool things about shooting video in my book, Get Seen:

"Although everyone wants to do video these days, they seem to be hesitant with it for multiple reasons. For starters, many people are intimidated by video. They also think that it is hard and that they have to have a full video crew to be successful at it.

According to video blogging pioneer Steve Garfield, these theories are false. He tells WebProNews that these theories are common misconceptions about video and that video can actually be quite simple."

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About Me

Steve is a Social Media Traveler. Companies, brands, and destinations send my wife and I on trips in hopes that we will publicly share our experiences via social media. Examples include opening festivities for the Hermitage Club and traveling with GMC to the Super Bowl. (Go Pats!) We are available for more branded experience trips.